City Oilers, KCCA Take Lead In Basketball Finals

City Oilers and KCCA Leopards on Wednesday night took the lead in the 2014 National Basketball finals.

City Oilers beat Falcons 4-3 to win the 2013 basketball finals.

The City Oilers stopped Tiger Head Power in the men’s first game, while KCCA Leopards brushed aside defending champions UCU Canons in the women’s category at the YMCA Courts, Wandegeya.

As it turned out, it was not going to be the notoriously hard-nosed Power defence. City Oilers, who are the defending champions, opened their first encounter with a 70-61 victory against their rivals.

In the first quarter, Oilers struggled offensively, but Power stayed always in control and finally suffocated their opponents 17-11.

The defending champions had different plans however and, in front of a frenetic strong crowd, stormed out the gates to a 23-14 second-quarter lead, never looked back.

They led 16-15 and 20-15 in the third and fourth quarters respectively enroute to a 70-61 win.

Oilers point guard Kami Kabange finished with 18 points and 10 rebounds, while his backcourt partner Jimmy Enabu turned heads with his all-round display collecting 12 points, four assists and three steals. Jeff Omondi added 11 points and six rebounds.

Joseph Ikong was the only Power player to score in double digits, with 14 points, and added eight rebounds, while Norman Blick had 11 points in losing efforts.

In the women’s game, UCU started strong against KCCA and took an eight-point lead after ten minutes, but the KCCA recovered from the initial shock to reduce the gap to just two points at the half-time interval.

But when KCCA starting pulling away in the third quarter, their opponents could no longer keep with the pace and they cruised to a 62-60 win over UCU.

Claire Lamunu and Rebecca Akullo combined 18 and 17 points apiece for KCCA. Purity Adhiambo collected a double-double of 20 points and 18 rebounds in a losing effort